Daniel Keys Moran is a computer programmer and science fiction writer best known for the novels Emerald Eyes, The Long Run, and The Last Dancer. Moran's works are listed in the Internet Top 100 list for science fiction and fantasy and are popular with readers of cyberpunk, featuring a high-tech vision of the near future complete with genetically engineered humans and a highly skilled hacker protagonists. Moran has also contributed some short fiction in the Star Wars series and a screenplay for one episode of Deep Space Nine, Hard Time. Terminal Freedom, a novel which he coauthored with sister Jodi Moran, was released in 1997. While Moran's character depictions have been criticized as being one-dimensional, he is praised for his fast-paced adventure and the sheer scope of his storytelling vision. Fans furthermore relish his wry humor and his adept use, and description of, technological wonders and innovations.

Born in 1962, Moran's first sci-fi publication came in 1982 with "All the Time in the World", a story which appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. This post-holocaust tale was expanded into his first novel Armageddon Blues (1987), alleged to be the first in a larger saga entitled Tales of the Great Wheel of Existence. In 1987 Moran also debuted Emerald Eyes, the first installment in a planned 33 volume saga, Tales of Continuing Time. Despite such grandiose plans, as well as great love and loyalty on the part of his readers, only two more volumes in the Continuing Time series have appeared, The Long Run and The Last Dancer.

Moran first conceived the Tales of Continuing Time series when he was thirteen years old, after having been an avid but admittedly awful writer for four years. For the next decade the creative teen filled stacks of notebooks with notes, timelines, and unfinished story attempts. Though considerable time passed before the tales found actual publication, Moran was still quite young when he signed his publication agreement with Bantam books, and he has since commented with bitterness upon the limitations that the contract placed on him and on his rights to his own work. Additionally, according to Moran, Bantam has blocked attempts to translate his works into RPG modules, graphic novels, and film.

Before the relationship went sour Bantam also managed to talk Moran into tackling the novelization of an alleged film project (by one Bill Stewart) that was in "preproduction". Titled The Ring and based on Wagner's epic opera of the same name, it was touted as the next Star Wars. Suffice to say the film never materialized and Moran's contract excluded him from any profits based on foreign sales of the book, which as it turned out, comprised the only significant source of revenues.